Aussie Federal election 2025

[old man emu]

I see that 98% of the persons eligible to enroll to vote have done so. I know that some people will say that enrolling is succumbing to pressure, but at least we have freely given every person who is eligible to vote the right to do so as they please, be it casting a valid vote or not.

 

What I have come to realise is that my generation no longer has the majority. It is my children and their children who now have the say in the direction into the future  the society my generation and earlier ones created will travel.

[nomadpete]

As noted on ABC news:-

 

Where is the long term vision for Australia?

 

Where are the long term plans behind policies?

 

I look at the success of China, and before that, the economic rise of Japan. Both of these have ridden on the back of long term vision and plans for their economic futures.

 

We have consistently failed to be consistent.

[Jerry_Atrick]

We have consistently failed to look beyond the next election (or erection..  I am not entirely sure)

[old man emu]

One Party is promising a tax rebate to be paid to middle-income earners in 2026. The rebate is supposed to ease cost of living. Those middle-income earners are going to incur a lot of cost of living expenses between May 2025 and July 2026. How will a promise ease the pain of reality? The promise is simply pie in the sky.

 

Nomad is correct. Australia, and one could probably say most Western nations, have never thought beyond the next election. It's amazing that political parties whose biggest contributors and advisors are business owners do not seem to understand that for business success one has to take a long term view, and not chase short term windfalls. If political parties did that, then a country might develop a sustainable economy and eventually prosperity might trickle down to the lowest levels. 

 

Socialist or Capitalist, any Party that set out a number of long term goals, and refused to be diverted from the path towards them, would be likely to maintain power for many years. We did have the Menzies years where there was economic development to a degree, but that was dependent on maintaining a colonial attitude whereby wealth came from the export of primary products to Britain. Once Britain joined the EEC that source of income began to dry up and Australia had to seek other markets. But since manufacturing capability, which was boosted by wartime production, had diminished, Australia had nothing of greater value to trade. There has never been a real push to do anything to value add to our primary production. 

[spacesailor]

I disagree!

Labor party has ' consistently ' reduced the " National Dept ' only too have it increased,  whenever the opposition is in power .

No new ' enterprise '  In Queensland they make " aluminium " ingots ! . ( Gladstone I think ) .

Instead of exporting the raw materials. 

Isn't that ' forward thinking .

spacesailor

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

No new ' enterprise '  In Queensland they make " aluminium " ingots ! . ( Gladstone I think ) .

Instead of exporting the raw materials. 

Isn't that ' forward thinking .

spacesailor

Well it's  an American owned smelter. I hope you don't think they leave the profits here.

 

If it was an Australian owned enterprise, that would be value adding, to our benefit.

 

If we then made stuff here from it, that would be forward thinking.

[nomadpete]

Further to that thought, does little donny know he is putting a tafiff on imported aloomium that comes from an american company in Australia?

 

(Edit)

Correction. Boyne Island smelters are mostly Canadian owned - Rio Tinto.

 

Still foreign owned (even tho they speak our language)

Edited Sunday at 05:27 AM by nomadpete
edited

[Marty_d]

Nothing Trumpy about the LNP...

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/13/image-emerges-of-jacinta-price-wearing-maga-cap-one-day-after-she-says-coalition-will-make-australia-great-again

[Jerry_Atrick]

There is a worldwide conservative movement: https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/pan-conservativi-a-new-global-conservative-reality/ 

 

And of course, JP had attended their international conferences.

 

At the moment, the movement seems to be centering around Chump.

 

Hopefully, any wannabe MAGAmaniac in Australia (and the UK) sees beyond the hollow promises.  Dutton has been distancing himself from JPs shenanigans, presumably because he sees it as a vote loser.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

9 hours ago, old man emu said:

One Party is promising a tax rebate to be paid to middle-income earners in 2026. The rebate is supposed to ease cost of living. Those middle-income earners are going to incur a lot of cost of living expenses between May 2025 and July 2026. How will a promise ease the pain of reality? The promise is simply pie in the sky.

I read that Albo is offering to increase the receipt free tax deduction from $300 to $1,000. Of course, unless it takes you below the tax free personal allowance, it is not a full $1,000 tax refund; it is proportional to the tax you pay. So, you will get back between c. $800 to $650 depending on your tax rate. Nothing to sneeze at. But, I cant help bet think Duttons petrol relief will mean more to more families.

 

 

 

[nomadpete]

Still nothing more than old man Bjelke Petersen

"Feeding the chooks"

 

As usual the only cert for a win in the election is.......

 

       The Merdoks !

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yeah.. but he is talking the chooks into thinking they will get ore feed than they actually will...

 

From my perspective, most people are probably thinking too little too late for alleviating the cost of living increase; aka inflation.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I find this fella usually has a balanced take on things:

 

[old man emu]

I thought that a simple way of thinking about Deficit and Surplus budgets was that a Deficit budget indicates that the government has been spending on its credit card while a Surplus budget indicates that it has not been spending. 

 

At times it is important for a government to book up stuff on its credit card and go into deficit. An example is the money spent so far on those AUKUS submarines. They are said to be things we need. I suppose the money the government allocates to disaster relief is spending on credit it the disaster is greater than what was expected. On the other hand, failure to spend by cutting back allocations to existing needs will bring a budget into surplus (windfall income excepted)

 

So the decision voters must make is which Party is making the best use of its income. Is the Party spending for the future, or does it want to horde income for some future undescribed need.

[spacesailor]

The cost ( interest ) of the National Dept , is looking bleak for future generations .

" 2022-24 year is $22.6   billion interest ,  on $923 billion dept " .

And we thought our house Mortgage was bad ! .

spacesailor

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

12 hours ago, old man emu said:

So the decision voters must make is which Party is making the best use of its income.

Vote for Trumpets of Patriots. Forget about the ALP and the Coalition, they got us into this debt mess.

[rgmwa]

I wouldn’t trust Clive with Australia’s bank accounts. 

[Marty_d]

1 hour ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

Vote for Trumpets of Patriots. Forget about the ALP and the Coalition, they got us into this debt mess.

Trumpet of patriots is coming dead last on my vote, and I'd suggest also anyone else's who is capable of coherent thought

[onetrack]

If Clive became PM, he'd treat Australian Govt funds as his own, and make Trump look like an honest, upstanding President.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

1 hour ago, Marty_d said:

Trumpet of patriots is coming dead last on my vote, and I'd suggest also anyone else's who is capable of coherent thought

Well who or what will you put first? Not one of the major parties I hope.

[Litespeed]

That's a simple question..

 

I put the country and its people first 

[red750]

I wouldm't trust Clive with the time of day.

[Jerry_Atrick]

8 hours ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

Vote for Trumpets of Patriots. Forget about the ALP and the Coalition, they got us into this debt mess.

Actually, with the notable exception of Victoria, the conservative parties in the the US, Canada, NZ, Australia, and the UK are the ones who usually incur heaviest debt on a marginal basis. And even Dan Andrews is not that big on the scale of things but the problem is, Victoria has little head room for tax receipts beyond where they are now.

 

What I can guarantee is that a nutcase party like Trumpets of Patriots would do far worse for the economy than any of the majors. Like Chump, they see tax breaks for the super rich as key to their plank, and of course, Clive will have uber low borrowing costs (AAA rating of the Aussie government) that would be funneled to his own private interests. If you for a minute think you will be better off under them, then you would really have to question your definition of being better off, which I would guess involves seeing others becoming worse off.

 

4 hours ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

Well who or what will you put first? Not one of the major parties I hope.

If it were me today, assuming there is no stellar independent in my electorate and I wanted the best for the economy and social cohesion (including getting to a consumer bureau), ALP seems to be the more sane party, though I will admit that they are reducing themselves to cheap vote buying tactics as well.. Feeding the chooks is a time tried and tested method, it seems.

 

Dutton just plays populist and the government he was part of previously has a horrid track record of economic mismanagement as well as open corruption, even before COVID struck. I would have put Greens up there, but they seem to have governance problems (as do the Libs).

Edited yesterday at 08:51 AM by Jerry_Atrick

[Marty_d]

4 hours ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

Well who or what will you put first? Not one of the major parties I hope.

An independent - https://petergeorgeforfranklin.com/

Followed by Greens, Labor, Liberals then the crazies.

[red750]

I just can't understand how those who have more money than they could jump over always need more.